(Clearwisdom.net)

On February 22, 2003, a Community Reports on Human Rights in China forum was held in Vancouver. The forum was hosted by Friends of Falun Gong (B.C). Amnesty International Vancouver Branch was invited to attend, and a representative delivered a speech on the current situation of Human Rights in China. The speech emphasized the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners over the past three years. Three Falun Gong practitioners spoke at the forum.

Mr. Dan Wright, representative of Amnesty International, delivered a report on the current situation of Human Rights in China.

During the forum, Mr. Dan Wright, representative of Amnesty International, first introduced evidence of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners over the past three years. This evidence was gathered by Amnesty International during the course of its own investigations. He said that death cases of Falun Gong practitioners are reported almost daily, and that practitioners are tortured to death simply because they refuse to give up their belief in "Truth Compassion and Tolerance." The Chinese government also mobilizes its entire propaganda machine against Falun Gong. Mr. Wright pointed out that freedom of belief is a fundamental human right. The Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners constitutes infringement of human rights and seriously violates international conventions and China's constitution.

Member of Friends of Falun Gong (B.C) and former director of British Columbia Human Rights Committee Ms. Mary Woo showed a movie Terror in China to the attendees. The movie showed how Jiang Zemin rose up the ranks to Party Secretary by controlling the media in Shanghai during the Chinese government's suppression of the student democracy movement in 1989. In 1999, Jiang used the same tactics to control media, flooding the country with fabrications and slander when he started the persecution of Falun Gong. The movie that was shown demonstrated the police brutality in beating and arresting Falun Gong practitioners peacefully appealing on Tiananmen Square. With graphical representation, the movie demonstrated all kinds of torture methods forced labor camps have been using on Falun Gong practitioners. Through comparison, the movie exposed the Jiang regime's brutal suppression.

Ms. Wu said that the Chinese government's propaganda against Falun Gong is not limited to China, but has already developed into an international propaganda campaign. It massively disseminates misinformation about Falun Gong around the world and attempts to mislead the public.

Falun Gong practitioners Zhang Tianxiao and Sophia Bronwen spoke on the persecution they or their family members have endured. 

Human rights expert Mrs. Sadie Kuehn emphasized that each individual has the right to freedom of belief. Her life has been appealing and fighting for human rights. She expressed her deep sympathy to Falun Gong practitioners suffering in the persecution She appealed to the people in attendance to write letters to the Canadian government, related government agencies and their MPs, appealing to them to take more action to help rescue Falun Gong practitioners in Chinese prisons. 

She also suggested that people send letters to the Chinese consulate demanding that the Chinese government immediately stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners and release Zhang Tianxiao's younger sister and tens of thousands of detained Falun Gong practitioners. She also advised writing to the United Nations and to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to stop financial aid to China until it stops the persecution.

An open discussion on the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners was held. Afterwards, many attendees signed their names to join the Friends of Falun Gong (BC)